Noahs 40G mixed minimalist reef

[Noahs Home Zoo]

Hey all so I got the itch to do a reef tank. Its 7-8 years since my last one and finally feeling like it was time. So here is the list of things I have ordered for the tank so far.

40g breeder tank & stand - already in
80 lbs of Carib Sea Ocean Direct Sand - have one, another showing Tuesday
20lbs of live rock - all here and sitting dry in the tank.
- 10lbs Pukani Dry live rock
- 5lbs Fiji Dry live rock
- 5lbs Reef saver live rock
Hydor Koralia Nano 425 - showing up Tuesday
Hydor Koralia Nano 565 - in the tank
Seachem Stability - under the tank
Current USA Orbit Marine Aquarium LED Light 36 to 48-inch - on the tank
2x ViaAqua 200 watt heaters - showing up Wednesday
40g glass cover top - still in the box, waiting till cycle time


Originally I started ordering things to do a 20 gallon long nano tank...but when I saw the tanks were half off. So I went with a 40 gallon instead. Which is also why I only ordered 20lbs of live rock. I will have to play it by ear on if I need to create a sump so I can have more surface area for biological control. I was going to pick up a 20 gallon long and make a sump, but the tanks were all sold out on the last day of Petcos sale. So here I am with the assumption I will have to do regular water changes once a week. I have seen those with and without sumps so I'm not sure if I should. But know that if I'm going to do it I need to do it now before I add anything to the tank. And I'm skittish about drilling holes in glass... So for now I still have a couple days to decide on the sump as I can't do anything till the heaters get here.

And not in a rush at this point to start it going till I know I have everything that I need to be successful in this 40 gallon tank adventure. Also knowing it will be a month once I start it before I can put in a clean up crew helps with keeping my ambitions and expectations in check for the moment.

End game will be to have the
The top third of the tank and originating from the top of the main center rock will be :
-SPS starting with Cat Paws, birds nest, Monitpora
The middle flanking areas of the tank will be populated from the top of the two rocks on the right and left:
-Torch, frog spawns, and a hammer
The bottom third quarter of the tank surrounding the live rock
-Candys around center rock, polyps and Zoas around the base of the flanking rocks
Smaller island jutting 1 inch from the sand using left over live rock bits.
-Mushrooms
Sand
-Contemplating a single brain coral or a large clam to dominate the middle of the tank. assortment of Feather duster worms, to place around the bottom of the tank.
Fish:
- I have a lot of time to think on this one and still have not built a list yet. I know I will need a decent clean up crew so lots of snails. And at least one goby and a shrimp to hopefully partner with. And I imagine my kids will want me to get a pair of clown fish since I have told them the tank is to small for a dory fish

So that leaves me where "I think I can grow things" but I am hoping that some experience on here from those with wisdom to spare will help in keeping me from placing things in the tank that just won't survive with my setup. So I am looking for an hopeful for any advice on alternative placement or alternative corals. But if you think its doable I'm ok with that encouragement as well lol. So lets have some fun with this!

 

[Salty1962]

Nice start!

 

[NaptownPzzWtr]

I personally recommend a sump because it is extra water volume, a place for equipment, a home for chaeto/pods, a place to add chemicals or perform water changes in, and can act as a quarantine if necessary. Good luck friend.

 

[Noahs Home Zoo]

OK...so everything that I ordered initially got here. And is all sitting under the tank. And I keep re-arranging the rocks. And figure I can keep moving them till it feels right...or the bulkheads and glass hole cutter gets here LOL. And still waiting for the next shipment of tanks to hit the local petco so I can pick up a 20 long. Time to figure out what pump size I need.

So we keep looking at SPS to see what we will grow to start with. So the current list is the following with their color completment:

• Purple birds nest - Yellow birds nest
• Red Stag - Green Pocillopora
• Orange Montipora - Blue Stag

After reading a couple articles on here I'm feeling a lot wiser about making sure these colors match up. I do know one thing. The tank that made me fall in love with saltwater tanks in the first place was a 3' x 3' x 3' tank. Everything was well hidden below the tank and they ran the electrical outlet where it came up out of the floor directly below it. It wasn't just the cool tank setup, it was a single 2' round brain coral that took up the entire center of the tank. It was pretty close to fully round. Not sure how long they had it to get it to that point...I do remember that her sister owned an aquarium store. That was 20 years ago and I still carry it with me. I wish I had pictures. Words just can't describe how much in awe I was of that tank. So to play homage I intend to start a brain coral in the open space of the tank Some day I will have my own large cubed tank with this little guy taking up the center

 

[Noahs Home Zoo]

made an addition to my frame. Painted a pegboard and attached it to the back of the stand. And also got a power bar strip and used some construction glue to attach it. Just waiting on the glue to set Once the rest is here and the holes punched I can fill it up.

 

[Noahs Home Zoo]

I was digging through some old photos and found this one from my first tank 8 years ago. When this tank crashed the Kenya at the top had grown to fill the entire back of the tank and the frog spawn filled the whole front corner, and the polyps had spread to cover 3x their current spots. And the mushroom had split multiple times and wrapped around the bottom of the rock for 14G Biocube it was a very enjoyable experience. And the picture was taken with a blackberry so the image is small and not all clear.

 

[Noahs Home Zoo]

and finally got it setup! I drilled the holes and put in the bulkheads. I put caps in them for now till I need the sump. Will post another pic once the water clears

 

[Noahs Home Zoo]

So here we go its a single row going down the middle of the tank. I can't wait for it to really clear up and balance out. And I only turned on the lights to take a picture. In incognito mode till the levels are ready for life.

 

[Noahs Home Zoo]

I tried doing glass...and $20 later and a garbage can full of glass later, I pulled out a spare sheet of lexan. The sock on the left, with an area to store top off water. In the middle is the refugium. I don't have plans for a skimmer right now but have room for splitting another chamber later if needed. The last set of baffles will have egg crate so I can put in live rock. And of course the water pump in the end. Tomorrw I will scrub it all one more time then silicon it all in place. Hoping to put the plumbing together saturday morning before I head to watch the new star wars movie

 

[Noahs Home Zoo]

Wow plumbing takes forever. So now one half is dry fit...at the least the other side doesn' have to connect anything >. < I was going to dry fit the carbon reactor but realized I need to get a 1/2" valve first...trying to clean that while the system is running seems like a bad idea if I have to shut off the entire thing every ime I need to change it. I tested all my parameters and they were all at the high end of the spectrum. The one thing I didn't have time for wad a water change. Maybe tomorrow.

 

[Noahs Home Zoo]

Not sure if I'm the only one with this problem....but I keep waking up in the middle of the night and have to check the tank because I'm in a panic that it might be draining water all of the floor. I have a HOB till I get the sump going...and the sound of the water is for some reason unsettling in my sleep. Just need to finish the sump so I can sleep more soundly! Right now the only thing in the HOB is a carbon pouch, and the broken up live rock that will be going into the sump. May just turn it off at night...The odd side affects of having this in my bedroom...I have four freshwater tanks in the house and this is the only tank I drilled into. I think that might be part of the anxiety.

 

[Noahs Home Zoo]

and the pipes are all dry fit I will order a gate valve for the carbon medium reactor. For now a ball valve will suffice. I keep for getting to pick up egg crate from homedepot soon as I get that I can build the rim for the sock, and stand for the live rock.

Any suggestions on where to point the return from the reactor?

 

[Noahs Home Zoo]

Introduced the Benny Lawnmower into the tank. The water is a bit murky as I did a water change today. It should be a bit clearer by tomorrow. I tried to get a closer video but he went and hid in the hole he has claimed as his own. I wanted to get a shot of him today, and to try out the GoPro a bit of a better image then my phone

 

[Noahs Home Zoo]

I have been testing the water every couple days. And also added a softball size of Chaeto to the refugium. But no matter what I have done (2x 15% water changes in the last week) I couldn't get the nitrites below 40 ppm. After reading another forum post where it was the incoming water, I decided to test my own. And found that my 1 stage under sink water filter doesn't do crap for removing nitrites. And the water coming from the tap is 40 ppm. And as I do not have a LFS I'm stuck still making my own saltwater. Here I am with 6 gallons of distilled water and plans to get it to where the water in the tank should be when add it in. What is a decent RO/DI setup for a man who has spent to much already on his tank setup lol....

 

[Noahs Home Zoo]

Picked up a small 30w heater and a $7 powerhead from Amazon, for the water change bucket. It's certainly making mixing a lot easier. As well as eliminating temperature swings when I do the water changes. Getting the groove for timing on draining the tank and when to pull the plug on the pump lol. Makes me think I could use a water sensor for shutting off the pump automatically when the water drains past a certain point in the return pump portion.

Also working on an arduino mini pro i had for another project. Right now I have two relays working for controlling my heaters. Waiting on a couple parts so I can add the wifi. Right now I just have the timer, temp probe, and a MicroSD card hooked up so I can track patterns. But doesn't do me much good to have to hook up my computer every time I want to pull data. Also ordered a 4x relay so I can control the lights and run the powerheads at 8 hour cycles. It's been fun so far

And now that I am feeling like I have water parameter changes under control i am ready for corals on Wednesday. It feels a little early for them...but I already bought them so I'm stuck with my actions. Since cheerycorals Christmas auction i have done a TON of research on each coral and have locations for each planned out. I moved the right side grouping back to make more room for the torches, frogspawns, and hammers. And got in to SB lights and ordered the 32" basic. Bloody expensive but 4 x the PAR of the USA orbit i have now. And it's what the SPS need. I feel cautious at this point about everything. And am testing everything daily. I impulse bought a ton of corals..so for now the Benny lawnmower will be the only inhabitant so I don't toss bio load anymore for the next several weeks. At this point I'm at the end of the Browning phase and starting to see some green and red in the tank. So near the end of truly cycling. God I hope I don't lose any corals

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Looking good so far!

 

[Noahs Home Zoo]

bloody hell....now I have to raise the TV >. < The blue is from the slim led light still up there. I plugged in the normal lights for a moment and about blew my socks off with the difference. Going to leave the heaters on a normal plug in for now and switch the relay to the lights so I can setup a schedule to acclimate the corals coming on Thursday. Will take some photos tomorrow with the lights on

 

[revhtree]

Looking good!

 

[Noahs Home Zoo]

Thank you

Tonight's' project...wiring up a new box for controlling the new lights. Found this single box to be just the right size for the two. When the four relay comes in I'll just go with a box for six outlets and make the middle two covered so I can fit the rest of the electronics into it. I keep looking at this and I won' be able to fit things on here unless I leave it with the jumpers instead of a soldered board layout. So for now I'll just put it in a other sealed box below it. Also got my voltage regulator for the wifi so I get to wire that in and uncomment some code. We will see how much I get done before everything arrives tomorrow

 

[Noahs Home Zoo]

New additions today Planning to slowly raise the light intensity every couple days. Starting them out at 10% today. And will run them for one more hour for a total of 4 hours for the day before I turn them off.